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Accolades

“This is good news for Massachusetts wine enthusiasts, who will now be able to purchase wines they currently don’t have access to,” said Robert Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine. “This is also good news for Massachusetts in general since it will mean new revenues.”

"Robert P. Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine at thewww.wellesleywinepress.com, calls the state’s liquor laws bizarre and favors a wider availability of wine. For consumers, it would be more convenient to be able to buy wine at a supermarket while shopping for food, he said."

“You have this strange exclusion of wine, which in Europe is considered a grocery item,” said Mr. Dwyer. “Here it’s considered the demon rum.”

"trying to predict the annual Wine of the Year is a popular parlor game among enophiles. This year, blogger Wellesley Wine Press held a contest, with New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co. awarding a prize of a Kindle Fire e-reader to the first commenter to correctly guess this year's top wine before it was announced. Unfiltered was impressed with the number of Top 10 wines prognosticated by Wellesley's readers. "Senelwine" guessed Château de St.-Cosme Gigondas 2009, our No. 10 wine, "Mike M" guessed Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional Douro 2008, our No. 7 wine, "James Z" guessed Baer Ursa Columbia Valley 2008, our No. 6 wine, and "RichardPF" nailed it, winning the Kindle, and the respect of his wine-loving peers. Looks like Wellesley's readers know their wine."

The Chicago Tribune's Bill Daley mentioned the site in Rosé: A wine for more seasons. I said "For me, they're like pumpkin spice coffee drinks: best enjoyed early in the season". Bill alsogave the site a shout-out for a piece the Capitol Case Clubcontributed about restaurant wine service. I thought it was a great example of how print wine writers can effectively engage wine bloggers.

The Boston Globe's website has been linking to my recent entries as part of their expanded local coverage includingWellesley. I truly appreciate that as it has driven a lot of local traffic to this site.

It was really nice of Thomas Matthews, Executive Editor of Wine Spectator to leave a comment and then check back and answer some questions I had. Awesome guy! Check it out here. And here.

Thanks to The Boston Globe for including The Wellesley Wine Press in their list of local blogs in the Food & Drink section. Check it out here.

The Wellesley Wine Press was just added tohttp://wine.alltop.com. Alltop is an interesting topical take on sorting through the best sites on the Internet- check it out and see which sites are listed for topics you're most interested in.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Just when you thought the Massachusetts alcohol sales tax issue was resolved...

Massachusetts State Representative Kay Khan (D-Newton) has introduced legislation which would not only reinstate the sales tax on alcoholic beverages sold at retail - it would also increase the excise tax.

Kahn's saying a discussion about reinstating the tax is "what people want to hear" is ironic since a majority of voters said they didn't want sales tax on alcohol just two months ago.

What's new here is how the increases are positioned. Previously the sales tax on alcohol was said to be earmarked for behavioral health services. In this proposal it's a classic sin tax increase aimed at increasing state revenue.

I have a couple of ideas for things the state legislature could do in the interest of their constituents instead:

Propose legislation to allow Massachusetts retailers to ship out of state. Currently, Massachusetts is the only state in the union I'm aware of that prohibits export of wine. If state retailers were allowed to ship wine out of state, it would increase the amount of wine flowing through the state's 3-tier system and more excise tax would be collected as wine trades hands between Massachusetts distributors and retailers. It would also enable state retailers to drive a higher volume of wine which could lead to more jobs in wine e-commerce in the state.

I'm fine with an examination of whether the excise tax rates need to be increased. I suggested an excise tax increase when the question of whether to repeal the sales tax was being debated.

But the notion of disregarding the results of the Question 1 in November of 2010 which specifically asked the question of whether alcohol should be exempt from sales tax sold at retail is insulting. Let's keep that off the table in newly proposed legislation.